Re-installing linux and what to do with GRUB

[pokefloote]

Okay, so I am installing linux to my USB 3.0 portable hard drive. I've tested it with Xubuntu 12.10 (Installed it to a partition on the portable, with the grub installation on the main hard drive of the computer.) Works good.

Thing is, I want to use Linux Mint 14 (cinnamon) instead of Xubuntu. Can I just format the portable's partition, and install Linux Mint the usual way and overwrite the GRUB loader? Or will I have to uninstall GRUB first to get it to show the changes?

I'm dual-booting it with Windows 7 x64 Professional.

edit:Also, if there's a good grub customizer or any tips for that that would help too. (Like re-arranging the order of OS's, which is default, etc) I'm fine with the basic text view of grub, I know about the "themed" versions of it.
Nevermind, I found grub-customizer. That was simple enough.

 

[trumpet-205]

When you install a Linux distro, GRUB will be overwritten. So yes, go ahead and install Linux Mint over Xubuntu (delete that portable partition then create it again).

 

[pokefloote]

Thank you! Installing Mint now.

Weird, after installing Xubuntu and GRUB, Mint can now see my sda/windows partition. Before it would view it as one big, blank partition so I couldn't install linux directly to my computer's hard drive without getting rid of everything. So I guess I'm going to try making a partition for mint on my main and see if that works out. Better than needing a USB attached all the time, I think.

update: I now have Mint 14 installed on my computer's hard drive. No need for portable installations anymore!
I needed that clarification though, so thanks again.

 

[robgraves]

wow how many linux users are on this forum?

 

[pokefloote]

wow how many linux users are on this forum?

More than I expected at first, actually. Quite a few screenshots in the "share your desktop" thread are on linux distros.

 

[robgraves]

More than I expected at first, actually. Quite a few screenshots in the "share your desktop" thread are on linux distros.

that's actually pretty cool